A busy platform in downtown Tokyo (Photo: Haruna Miyashita)

(Writer: K. Fujita)

The Japanese rush hour is famous – or, more accurately infamous – the world over.

Not just urban myth - it IS true that specially hired young folk are still employed at busy train stations, and are kitted out in hats and white gloves to help push people, bodily, on to already overcrowded trains during the rush hour.

It is also true that there are actually seats on the commuter trains, although for many boarding in the city limits itself these will be more of a thing of rumor than something ever seen or enjoyed, seats usually monopolized by those living further out into the suburbs of Saitama (north of Tokyo), Kanagawa (to the south), and Chiba (the prefecture to the east).

Most bizarre of all on the morning commute for most visitors though is the complete lack of complaint at being crushed together for extended periods with, at times your face mere inches from that of a total stranger. People seem to accept it as an unavoidable part of life, to shut their eyes and simply pass the journey listening to music or in a place halfway between sleep and full awareness, the tight crush of bodies preventing one from falling over, even after falling into a fully blown slumber.